Tempest Trait and Rebound Rework Ideas

[KinkyPotato.4219]

After our beloved balance update which saw Tempests finally receive Alacrity (albeit, in a clunky manner), I figured now would be a great time to revisit the Tempest specialization as a whole to revitalize and bring it up to today's specialization standards. These ideas include: removing pain points with existing mechanics, solidifying the alacrity role by baking the boon into additional traits rather than having it tacked on lazily on a single grandmaster, and improving shouts to synergize more with the Tempest's overload mechanic.

UTILITIES

Rebound Idea #1: Reworked to now Shout and infuse your allies with arcane energy. Allies who would take lethal damage while this is active ignore the deathblow, are healed instead and granted all elemental auras for 4 seconds. If the effect expires naturally, grant all elemental auras for 4 seconds. Cooldown increased from 75 seconds to 105 seconds.

Rebound Idea #2: Reworked to now Shout and infuse your allies with arcane energy. Allies who would take lethal damage while this is active ignore the deathblow, are healed instead, cleansed of all conditions and granted an elemental aura based on your current attunement for 4 seconds. If the effect expires naturally, cleanse all conditions and grant an elemental aura based on your current attunement. 

An elite should feel incredibly powerful when casted, most notably due to their incredibly long cooldowns. While Rebound's lethal damage saves can be potentially impactful and allow for mechanic saves/ignoring, the healing is pitifully small, its secondary effects are equally lackluster and the 5 man target limit change with EoD's release hurt its niche strength. With idea #1, not only would granting all 4 elemental auras be incredibly powerful in their own right, but this would also synergize greatly with Aura traits given that you are now applying 4 instances of Auras. With idea #2, this would function as an ally-targeted A.E.D by granting condition cleansing to prevent situations in which your allies die to conditions shortly after just being saved.

TRAITS

Adept

Gale Song: Removed

Booming Voice: This trait fills the slot previously held by Gale Song.  This trait allows Shouts to reduce the time to attain elemental singularity by 3 seconds. 

While Gale Song is incredibly powerful in certain PvE encounters where CC is prevalent and an additional stun-break is required, its competitive split of increasing its recharge to 300 seconds and passive functionality make it particularly problematic for WvW/PvP. Booming voice however promotes faster Overloads for support and DPS tempests alike as the use of two shouts between rotations can enable instantaneous overloading and make it easier to maintainTranscendent Tempest's damage buff or Lucid Singularity's Alacrity effects.  

Master

Tempestuous Aria: Now additionally reduces the recharge of Shouts by 20% in addition to its previous effects. Increased the number of Might stacks from 2 to 3 in PvE.

Harmonious Conduit: Reworked to now Grant Stability (1 stack, 4 second duration) and Aegis (1 stack, 4 second duration) to nearby allies when starting an overload. Upon successfully completing an overload, grant Stability (1 stack, 4 second duration) to nearby allies. 

Invigorating Torrents: Now additionally allows Auras you grant to apply Alacrity for 1.5 seconds.

Shout recharge reduction and additional might stacks were added to Tempestuous Aria due to Booming Voice's new functionality. Tempests who are looking to play more offensively would therefore not want to use all their Shout utilities at once so as to not waste Booming Voice's singularity reduction. As such, lowering the recharge to allow for more interactions with Shouting and Overloading as well as slightly increasing the Might stacks should make this a more compelling option to take.

Harmonious Conduit has been simultaneously updated to finally enable Tempests the ability to grant Stability and Aegis to allies. These are boons that are often mandatory for a majority of content in the game, be it competitive or PvE, and their non-existence on an Elementalist's toolkit has significantly hampered a party's willingness to bring them for Support. Additionally, harmonizing Harmonious Conduit and Lucid Singularity's functionality (ie, provide benefits at the beginning and end of an overload) solves a major pain point with the current implementation of these two traits. Similarly, enabling Alacrity on Auras with Invigorating Torrents functions similarly to the Firebrand specialization in that they have multiple avenues to grant Quickness to their party. This assists the Tempest greatly in fulfilling a strong Alacrity Support role for a team.

Grandmaster

Transcendent Tempest: Reworked. No longer passively reduces the time to attain singularity. Now upon successfully completing an overload, gain 10% increased damage and 10% increased condition damage for 7 seconds.

Lucid Singularity:  Reworked to now Grant Alacrity to nearby allies when starting an overload. Upon successfully completing an overload, grant Alacrity and an additional effect based on your current attunement to nearby allies.

Fire - Your next strike inflicts burning. 
Water - Your next strike inflicts chill and grants Vigor.
Air - Grant an additional charge of Static Charge.
Earth - Your next strike inflicts bleed and cripple.

As Transcendent Tempest's singularity reduction has been shifted to shouts with Booming Voice, this component was removed and replaced with a 3% damage buff to strike and condition damage. As mentioned above with Harmonious Conduit, Lucid Singularity now also provides Alacrity at the start of an overload so as to still provide a benefit even if your Overload gets cancelled. While ultimately you still want to reward a Tempest for successfully completing an overload, a Grandmaster being solely contingent on a successful channel (especially an important one like Alacrity) feels incredibly painful on fights where heavy CC is prevalent or dodging is required. One single interrupt, be it through having to evade or being CC'd will halt your Alacrity uptime considerably. This change should allow Alacrity Tempests more room to breathe and to also provide additional utility, similar to the Firebrand's Quickfire. In particular, Water's Vigor bonus also has synergy with Latent Stamina to provide further synergy and niche for endurance gains.

My goal with these reworks was to not only buff Tempest to be a viable support role in all game modes, but to also update its lackluster trait and utility functions to solidify its role as a strong support. There are now multiple paths one can take when building a Tempest, with ample options that are both competitive and flavourful. Pain-points have been resolved in that Harmonious Conduit and Lucid Singularity provide initial benefits as well as additional benefits upon successfully completing an overload. Alacrity has been blended seamlessly into the Tempest's identity by also allowing Invigorating Torrents the ability to apply alacrity with aura application. Finally, shouts have been granted recharge reduction in Tempestuous Aria and an additional trait in the form of Booming Voice to directly synergize with the Tempest's core mechanic of Overloading.

Please feel free to let me know any comments and feedback you may have 🙂

Edited July 22, 2022 by KinkyPotato.4219

[Downstate.4697]

You really want shouts with 45% cd reduction?

And rebound giving all auras is gross.

[the krytan assassin.9235]

I'd honestly welcome pretty much any change to the current adept and master traitline since they're complete garbage atm. I personally don't like the rebound changes, but i agree it definitely needs a rework. 

Also i've got 2 big problems with your trait rework:

Your proposed change to invigorated torrents is totally busted. The amount of auras a Tempest van provide is insane, resulting in An easy 100% uptime without the Grandmaster trait. 

Last but not least you're forcing ele to become a permanent overload channeller this way. Basically you Just swap attunement, cast a shout and pretty much instantly can start an overload. If there's anything the Tempest needs in my opinion it is a reduction/removal of the overload channel time. Nothing is more boring then to cast a skill every ~8 seconds that forces you to do nothing for 3-4 seconds. 

[KinkyPotato.4219]

17 hours ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

You really want shouts with 45% cd reduction?

And rebound giving all auras is gross.

I'm not sure I follow - most utilities have a (potential) 45% cd reduction if you factor in alacrity and similar utility cooldown traits. Please explain what would be so wrong with giving shouts a 45% cd reduction if the same limitations don't apply to other utilities from other elite specializations? Morever, this trait is also competing with two very strong traits in the form of Invigorating Torrents and Harmonious Conduit so even if you do take the reduced recharge, you're loosing boon application on auras or stability/aegis on overloading.

I'm open to ideas to make rebound better - feel free to share them if you've got any.

Edited July 22, 2022 by KinkyPotato.4219

[KinkyPotato.4219]

3 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

I'd honestly welcome pretty much any change to the current adept and master traitline since they're complete garbage atm. I personally don't like the rebound changes, but i agree it definitely needs a rework. 

Also i've got 2 big problems with your trait rework:

Your proposed change to invigorated torrents is totally busted. The amount of auras a Tempest van provide is insane, resulting in An easy 100% uptime without the Grandmaster trait. 

Last but not least you're forcing ele to become a permanent overload channeller this way. Basically you Just swap attunement, cast a shout and pretty much instantly can start an overload. If there's anything the Tempest needs in my opinion it is a reduction/removal of the overload channel time. Nothing is more boring then to cast a skill every ~8 seconds that forces you to do nothing for 3-4 seconds. 

Thanks for the feedback! I'm open to ideas to reworking Rebound to make it truly worthy of an elite status. Perhaps a cooldown increase to allow for the application of all auras? My motivation behind this change was admittedly the Harbinger's Elixir of Ambition which may not have been the best idea to leverage. I've added an alternative rework to Rebound - let me know what you think.

1. The duration can definitely be lowered if its too much of an issue though the attempted fix here was to bake alacrity into multiple areas so as to smoothen its application. Think Alacrity Mechanist and Quickness Firebrand - they have multiple sources of their respective boon as its part of their identity. Alacrity should also be a key component of the Tempest's identity and not just a boon tacked on to a grandmaster. 

2. This is where you and I differ - I for one, enjoy the playstyle of becoming an overload channeler. That is what this elite specialization is at its core and I don't think the developers should steer away from that as its thematically, a very interesting concept. As for the question of permanent overload channeler - the reduction in elemental singularity already passively exists in the current iteration of Transcendent Tempest. As elemental singularity takes 6 seconds and Transcendent Tempest currently reduces singularity time by 33%, singularities take 4 seconds if you take this trait in the game today. My idea was to shift that into a bigger, albeit more controlled, power spike where you can potentially decide when you want to overload by providing singularity reductions after casting a shout. This creates interesting decision making potential for the player and I think that's infinitely more engaging than the passive reduction right now that exists.

Also, overloading is not doing "nothing". You're still doing damage/healing/cleansing/applying boons and conditions...I don't consider that nothing. It sounds like the playstyle is just not for you in my opinion - which is completely fine. But I don't think a reduction/removal of the overload channel time will put this elite specialization in a healthy state. It just needs additional incentives to aim for those powerful channels.   

Edited July 22, 2022 by KinkyPotato.4219

[the krytan assassin.9235]

5 hours ago, KinkyPotato.4219 said:

. It sounds like the playstyle is just not for you in my opinion

Lol why should it suddenly be not for me? I like playing my ele and i'd like to make use of all my elite specs. I'm just pointing out what in my view is an inherit flaw in it's current overloading design and has been in fact mentioned in numerous forum posts as a flaw.

Forcing a class 50% of the time in a 4 second channel time where he isn't able to cast any skills except for instant skills, basically time gating any other attunement use, taking a way the key concept of dodging away from the class all while doing kitten damage is Just no good game design.

Besides that the game is simply designed to be a fast interactive combat style. Any skill that locks you out for over 2 seconds put you in a very awkward spot at pvp/wvw and dodge mechanics in pve generally offer 1-3 seconds of reaction time. Both are significantly shorter then it's current channel time. There's a very good reason why there are 0 other skills released since HoT that come even close to the channel time of an overload. 

The key aspect of Tempest is to reward players that camp a single attunement to master the element and bring it's power to a peak. Right now however the reward is anything but bringing the power to it's peak during it's channeling phase. If anything it's weakening it. 

The main reason to use an overload shouldn't be to give alacrity or aurashare, it should be to give a powerful effect to your attunement that you've been camping (like the end effect of an overload or an increased effectiveness, shortened duration  channeling phase).

I don't mind reducing the time to reach singularity since most of the elements don't offer enough decent skills to efficiently camp an attunement for 6 seconds (although it shouldn't be gated behind the use of aura's) but it should be accompanied with a reduced channeling time and reduced cd on overloaded attunements.

Edited July 22, 2022 by the krytan assassin.9235

[Ptolomy.6984]

I think theres a problem in the adept traitline tho i think auras on completing an overload is kinda making all the other options relatively useless. As a support you want the auras and as a dps most likely too and im wondering if making unstable conduit baseline for tempest or at least put it in a minor trait wouldnt make it OP. Catalyst has a minor trait that gives auras, why doesnt tempest have this while this is arguably THE aura ele spec. This could open up build diversity and get a less restrictive and boring adept trait lineup

[KinkyPotato.4219]

9 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

I don't mind reducing the time to reach singularity since most of the elements don't offer enough decent skills to efficiently camp an attunement for 6 seconds (although it shouldn't be gated behind the use of aura's) but it should be accompanied with a reduced channeling time and reduced cd on overloaded attunements.

Yeah that could work - something like a 2 second channel time with a 12-15 second cooldown? 

[KinkyPotato.4219]

2 hours ago, Ptolomy.6984 said:

I think theres a problem in the adept traitline tho i think auras on completing an overload is kinda making all the other options relatively useless. As a support you want the auras and as a dps most likely too and im wondering if making unstable conduit baseline for tempest or at least put it in a minor trait wouldnt make it OP. Catalyst has a minor trait that gives auras, why doesnt tempest have this while this is arguably THE aura ele spec. This could open up build diversity and get a less restrictive and boring adept trait lineup

I agree with this which is why I added a third alternative competitive option in the form of Booming Voice. That way, you can still build a DPS Tempest without relying on Auras in the form of Booming Voice/Tempestuous Aria/Transcendent Tempest. Heck, you could also make a non-Aura support build in the form of Booming Voice/Harmonious Conduit/Lucid Singularity. 

Edited July 22, 2022 by KinkyPotato.4219

[Endaris.1452]

There is absolutely no need to make skills better that are already so good that you basically take Tempest for them. Making Rebound even better than it already is, makes little sense.

Overall your ideas seem to be kind of overtuned, giving boon Tempest permanent 2 stacks of stability is silly, making Tempest have to invest 0 boon duration on gear to grant 100% alacrity uptime is silly.

I do agree that Gale Song is pretty obsolete (especially in competitive modes) and Harmonious Conduit should probably just get merged into Hardy Conduit in some way as self stability really should be baseline for overloading. I generally don't dislike the idea of the trait also sharing stability to allies but the duration should be shorter. 1 stack for 3s on self for starting the overload and 3 stacks on allies for 2.5s seems plenty and makes group stab application more of a skillful action rather than just vomiting out ridiculous amounts of stab on a boon build without really having to care for when you do it. I know hmech does it but I also think that pretty much none considers that good design.

I think Latent Stamina could potentially also see a replacement/rework as it currently rarely sees play because a supporter would essentially always run the aura trait for obvious reasons. Applying vigor on that trait is a pretty lackluster option when you have longer vigor on Invigorating Torrents and the 10 endurance are pretty insignificant in the bigger picture. And having a trait that looks like it would rather be a minor master in water in Tempest is really weird anyway. If you really want Aegis on Tempest I suppose you could consider adding a trait here that grants Aegis to nearby allies for 3 seconds upon detonating an aura or something in that direction. By making it compete with the auras on overloads you directly reduce the availability of detonates, making the Aegis something that has to be used very consciously in conjunction with shouts or weapon skills.